I established a baselined "Cost of Living" weekly expense that mostly reflects your first two questions, but also includes unavoidable non-utility costs such as buying stamps or picking up dry cleaning. This used to be $90, but this year i decided that was ridiculous and have so far been holding it to $65.
I try to hold costs from your second question (mostly lunch) to under $25 a week, reasoning that i can pack my own for about $3.50 a day, plus the cost of my preparation time.
A grocery trip tends to be about $60, with a big "stocking-up" trip being almost double that. That's just for me - Elise and I are pretty good about equally splitting costs. For budgeting purposes I split grocery costs across however many weeks that trip's food will account for (usually 2.5).
Additionally, i schedule a fixed amount of Frivolous Spending a week (which would include your third question, as well as buying books, CDs, liquor, etc), with some higher amounts scattered through the year so that my year roughly comes out to my known Friv/wk average, adjusted for inflation.
Right now my frivolous spending assumes i will at least go out for dinner and buy one CD in any given week.
A lot of it is just common sense and determining a pattern in what you do. Much like going on a diet, it's not realistic to say you're only going to spend $40 a week just in the name of being on a budget, when in reality it takes $90 to live. Also, it's no good budgeting every week based on how much you spend in a year when half of that spending happens in September.
When i use common sense and stick to my estabished spending pattern i can go off the budget for one to three months and come back to only a minor variance. If i decide to do something unusual like go to go out to every night for a week or buy a new guitar then i need to remap to understand the impact of my irregular actions.
I highly recommend using Quicken or Money to meticulously track expenses for 2-3 months once you start your new job, especially utilizing a plethora of categories and sub-categories so you can see some very detailed charts. Then you can create a budget that's statistically sure to be true to your reality.
I haven't touched Quicken since my meticulous track of 2004. Of course, i spend very differently now, but i'm already very self-aware of that through the budget. Also, i have discovered that my actual spending is the most realistic when i'm budgeting predictively (i.e. tweaking all manner of near-future expenses to aim for a specific mid/long-term spending/saving goal), and that's a pain to do in Quicken.
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I try to hold costs from your second question (mostly lunch) to under $25 a week, reasoning that i can pack my own for about $3.50 a day, plus the cost of my preparation time.
A grocery trip tends to be about $60, with a big "stocking-up" trip being almost double that. That's just for me - Elise and I are pretty good about equally splitting costs. For budgeting purposes I split grocery costs across however many weeks that trip's food will account for (usually 2.5).
Additionally, i schedule a fixed amount of Frivolous Spending a week (which would include your third question, as well as buying books, CDs, liquor, etc), with some higher amounts scattered through the year so that my year roughly comes out to my known Friv/wk average, adjusted for inflation.
Right now my frivolous spending assumes i will at least go out for dinner and buy one CD in any given week.
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You should teach a class on this, by the way. I'm 100% serious.
no subject
When i use common sense and stick to my estabished spending pattern i can go off the budget for one to three months and come back to only a minor variance. If i decide to do something unusual like go to go out to every night for a week or buy a new guitar then i need to remap to understand the impact of my irregular actions.
I highly recommend using Quicken or Money to meticulously track expenses for 2-3 months once you start your new job, especially utilizing a plethora of categories and sub-categories so you can see some very detailed charts. Then you can create a budget that's statistically sure to be true to your reality.
I haven't touched Quicken since my meticulous track of 2004. Of course, i spend very differently now, but i'm already very self-aware of that through the budget. Also, i have discovered that my actual spending is the most realistic when i'm budgeting predictively (i.e. tweaking all manner of near-future expenses to aim for a specific mid/long-term spending/saving goal), and that's a pain to do in Quicken.